[sustran] Bangkok Post story
Craig Townsend
townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au
Sat Jun 16 13:51:07 JST 2001
An encouraging story from Thailand, although I would note that although the
central government has urged these municipalities (which are the central
areas of smaller cities of under half a million) to create bike lanes, it
isn't yet providing them with funding and the municipalities don't have the
capacity and ability to fund these things themselves. For over thirty years
politicians and bureaucrats talked about the importance of high capacity
mass transit in Bangkok, but at the end of the day they didn't provide
funding, while providing funding for over 300 km of large elevated
expressways. The first elevated heavy rail system (opened 1999) was a
purely private sector investment and a subway under construction was only
after extensive lobbying by Japanese interests and finance from JBIC at
extremely favourable terms.
I wonder if the World Bank or ADB has ever or would consider funding bike
lanes?
From The Bangkok Post, online edition, 16 June 2001
Twenty-one municipalities seek funding for bike lane projects
Twenty-one municipalities have proposed bicycle lane projects for funding
from the National Energy Policy Office, said the director of its Energy
Conservation and Renewable Energy Division.
Pongpisit Viseshakul said each project would receive 500,000 baht if
approved by Nepo's Energy Conservation Promotion Fund panel.
In April, the fund committee urged 99 municipalities nationwide to create
bicycle lanes to promote energy conservation and environmentally-friendly
transport.
Municipalities submitting proposals included Ayutthaya, Chai Nat, Maha
Sarakham, Lamphun, Loei, Narathiwat, Phuket, Nong Khai, Phrae and Sakon Nakhon.
Mr Pongpisit said the available fund was limited and only 10
munici-palities would be selected forfunding.
________________________________________________
Craig Townsend
Institute for Sustainability & Technology Policy
Murdoch University
South Street, Murdoch
Perth, Western Australia 6150
tel: (61 8) 9360 6293
fax: (61 8) 9360 6421
email: townsend at central.murdoch.edu.au
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